Sacrifice
by venusdemilo7
Summary: AUish- Kagome must marry a monster in order to save her village. IY/Kag


A/N: Don't worry, "My Muse" is still my main project. I'm just getting this one started because it told me to ;_;

I think this story is going to be complicated and/or long, so… it'll probably take a while. But I just wanted to get this teaser out there and hopefully I'll be inspired *crosses fingers*

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Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Or the novel White Midnight by Dia Calhoun, from which I was also inspired.

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Sacrifice

Chapter 1: Prologue

In these hard times of civil war, countless villages have been ruined. Yet in the thick of it, my village has remained. Most would say it's because of me and my family protecting the village with our spiritual powers. But I think it's because of our village's strong sense of community. We may not all get along, but when it gets down to it, we will do anything for each other and for the village. My family is more of a ceremonial figurehead. Unless you ask my grandfather… he believes he single-handedly keeps the demons and rogue samurai at bay. I know that none of my family has had to use significant spiritual power in years. Not since my father…

But I digress. As I was saying, the members of this village will do anything for each other and for the greater good—which unfortunately for me includes marrying off the shrine keeper's granddaughter as a sacrifice.

The headman of the village came and broke the news to me and my family the day after my fifteenth birthday. He said I should be honored to be chosen for such a task that would ensure our village's safety for years to come. I've learned since then that desperate people in unstable times will do many things for the promise of safety. Things they might not have done otherwise. But—as the expression goes—it all works out in the end.

I digress again. Yes, the headman had the gall to call it an "honor!" You, dear reader, may think I exaggerate by calling it a sacrifice. But how else was I to view such a task? My intended was not known to me personally, yet neither was he a complete stranger. Throughout my childhood I and the other village children had been told horrific tales about a ferocious monster demon with no equal, who delighted in eating naughty children. Once grown I learned that last part was not true, and yet the adults were wary whenever they mentioned _him_. They'd check over their shoulders, as if afraid he'd leap down at them any moment. And all avoided the forest if they could help it. _His_ forest. Soon to be _my_ forest. Yes, I'm betrothed to a monstrous demon because it will save the village.

Don't ask me how; the headman was curiously vague about that part. Something about the demon's guardian needing a new bride to tame the beast, or else he'd release a thousand demons upon the village…

I suggested that we just kill the demons once he'd released them and then I wouldn't have to marry anybody.

My compromise wasn't even considered.

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The weeks whirl-winded by as my mother and I prepared clothes, linens, and other essential items I would be taking with me into my new married life. Each day bled indistinguishably into another as I became numb with either acceptance or denial. I had to put a brave front on though, and whenever I passed in the village someone would sigh and shake their head and say, "That poor Higurashi girl." Their neighbor would reply, "Yes, 'tis a shame, but what a great and honorable sacrifice she makes for the village!"

So I numbly accepted the duty and denied the "husband" I would have to take in… too soon to think about comfortably.

What the villagers said didn't bother me as nearly as much as what my family didn't say. The hardest parts were hearing my mother cry at night, knowing I could not comfort her, and seeing my brother look at me with frightened eyes, like I was already dead, and watching my grandfather construct an alter for Kagome the Martyr for the villagers to pray at and offer blessings to.

I didn't cry until the last night of my freedom. After I had run out of tears, I couldn't sleep; so I just laid there staring at the ceiling.

Tomorrow was the day.

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End file.
